A Stadium? Bad Idea

Published: October 4, 2004

To the Editor:

Re ''Supporters of West Side Stadium Cheer for Jobs and the Jets'' (news article, Sept. 29):

A West Side stadium is the wrong choice for producing jobs and tax revenue.

Using the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's rail yards -- prime riverfront property -- for commercial and residential development and expansion of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center would produce many more jobs and much more economic development and revenue for the city and the authority than putting a stadium there. For the economy, a stadium is dead weight.

We shouldn't spend $600 million -- taxpayer money spent by public authorities without the say-so of the Legislature or the City Council -- on a boondoggle that will produce nightmarish traffic jams, according to the city's own environmental impact statement.